No, this is not Dieter, but Klaus Nomi…a real ‘ahhhrtist” from the Deutchland
I’m not a big television watcher now, but I have come to realize all the TV I watched as a child shaped me to such a degree that I’m forever indebted to the idiot box, particularly through years 1982-1997. Was my refusal to brush my hair as an adolescent subconsciously justified by my admiration of Topenga in Boy Meets World? A preference for quiet, contemplative boys perhaps a side effect of being a devout fan of Doug?
One thing I do know: certainly my love/amusement of overly-serious German musicians with synths and cold voices (from Neu! to Nico to Ladytron) is a result of my favorite SNL sketch of all time, “Sprockets,”from the deliciously demented mind of Mike Myers. Not surprisingly, Myers based the uber-nihilist/minimalist/expressionist “Dieter,” on someone he knew in art school and turned this character into the host of Sprockets, a West German talk show (although occasionally he would do other things such as host German Jeopardy). With a remixed Kraftwerk theme song (“Electric Café”) and a mischievous monkey sidekick (“Klaus”), Dieter would interview guests (usually that week’s SNL host) and if he liked them enough he’d offer: “Would you like touch my monkey?” Usually he’d get bored with his guest (Dieter’s ennui was as determined as his love for Klaus) and then he’d always end the show with “Now is ze time on Sprockets ven vee dance!” Robot spazz dancing followed.
I was too little when I first saw the skit (it debuted in 1989) to understand what exactly Dieter was parodying (80’s German art culture ala Klaus Nomi), but I look back on this and I think that it made me curious about those Germans…perhaps why I read so much Nietzsche in college?
Anyhow, if you never saw this skit (it’s unlikely you haven’t-didn’t we all grow up on Dana Carvey/Mike Myers-era SNL?), check it out as it is still wonderful, all these years later: Click here for Deiter’s Dream (with a hilariously deadpan Miranda Richardson in a rare comedic turn). It is not unlike many of the students films I saw at SUNY Purchase. And yes, this is the infamous “Whorenun” episode.
Alas, it’s impossible to find most of the full skits online because of NBC’s stringent copyright issues (and WordPress won’t let me post above video, hence lack of embedding) , but do check out the transcript of one of my favorites, starring the unfailingly creepy Kyle Maclachlan as a German Bob Saget type (the compiler of “Germany’s Most Disturbing Home Videos”-”‘You may know him as ze vacky neighbor from Munich TV’s hit comedy ‘Who Are You to Accuse Me?’“). What a pleasure to watch the “beautiful and angular” Kyle MacLachlan scream “ANTS!!!!!!!!”
(Many thanks to Bryan, who found this and also reminded me of my remembrance/deep love of Dieter in the first place.)
(“And in the coming seasons, we can look to books by Talking Heads’ David Byrne, who records his impressions while biking through 10 cities around the world, and by musician and producer Brian Eno, who is writing about art in the tentatively titled 44 Minutes: A Big Theory about Culture.”–HOLY FUCK!)
The mixtape a gesture of love? (Serioulsy, go to this site, mixtape.exopolis, as it is so very wonderful…kitsch, Manu Chau, a little boy and groovy Flash action, etc…and you can send it to all you love!)
Some art from someone who gave me really good mix cds….
Speaking of old school shit like mix tapes and stuff, I realized, when revisiting my book collection, that one single book, put out in 1996 and now worth all of 66 cents used from Amazon.com, probably taught me more about music than anything else. Except for maybe those mix tapes that a creepy but very nice 35-year-old who managed my local video store used to make me when I was 16.
The irony of this is that most of the writers in here are now book critics.
And I love you all, my dear readers:
Eurotrash Girl: Chicks on Speed…German art ladies who were making capes before Air was wearing them and making fun of hipsters when James Murphy was only dreaming of being LCD Slip Inside This House: The 13th Floor Elevators…years ago, Primal Scream’s version of this (which I heard first in the terrible Ethen Hawke adaptation of Hamlet which rethought the dire Dane into an NYU film major) was one of my mix-cd/mix tape staples. Then I heard the original. Like Modernism and Post-Modernism. Um, or not. Trippy-ass song, though. Mannequin: Wire …Mannequin was also a great movie with Andrew McCarthy and if the filmmakers had been truly as rad as we are, they would have put this song into it. Anything You Want: Spoon…last weekend I was in a cab with a crew and a music fight was gonna ensue, we could feel it (dance music lover versus dance music skeptic). Then Spoon came on the radio and everything was all good again. ‘Cause, I mean everyone likes Spoon, dude. This song is so sweet too. Nietzsche: The Dandy Warhols….All this talk about Spirtualized lately makes me want to really re-visit psych-1996 style and listen to the Dandy Warhols. Americans never did this sound as well as the Brits, but Songs from Urban Bohemia is a good if guilty pleasure album. Venus in Furs: Devotchka (VU cover)…so this is why Devotcka tickets are so expensive! Wawa: Lizzy MercierA wawa is a bird. A WaWa is the best crap food/24-hour store in the ENTIRE world. Props to my girl Claire, Wawa’s biggest fan (and possibly best looking patron), who also once told me to lick Brett Daniels from Spoon via text after I told her I saw him at a free show at South Street Seaport (see above). Felt tip:Love is all Really, isn’t love all, people?
